Memory Marks
by TheRavenclawAthena
Summary: After Draco and Hermione are married, Draco decides he has to tell his son Vincent the true story behind his Dark Mark. Dramione with hints of Hinny.


Draco Malfoy didn't like wearing short sleeves, not even around his own family. The reminder of who he'd once been was too painful, too fresh, and every glimpse of the black mark on his arm made him feel sick.

"Hey, how was your day?" Hermione greeted her husband as he got home from work.

"It was fine," he responded, lightly kissing her cheek.

She noticed he was holding his left arm weirdly. "Is it bothering you?" she asked, looking at the spot where she knew the Dark Mark was.

He sighed. "Yeah. I mean, it doesn't hurt or anything. It's just...there. It's a reminder of a terrible memory that I can't get rid of. It's permanently a part of me."

"Draco, I wouldn't want you to get rid of it even if you could. It's a part of you, like you said. If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be who you are today. We probably wouldn't even be here."

He nodded because it was true. They'd fallen for each other returning after the war for their seventh year at Hogwarts. Draco had needed a friend, and Hermione had been there for him.

"When are you going to tell him?" Hermione asked, talking about their son Vincent, who was eight years old, named after Draco's best friend Vincent Crabbe who had died in the Wizarding War.

"I don't know, Hermione. I'm just not quite ready for him to know," he said, looking at his son who was playing happily outside.

Hermione nodded understandingly. "Okay."

"I love you," Draco said, kissing her.

"I love you too. Will you call Vincent in for dinner?"

He came running in screaming "Dad! Dad!" as soon as Draco called him. "I lost a tooth today and Mom says the tooth fairy will come and bring me money!"

"Yeah, she sure will," Draco said, grinning at Hermione.

"Time for dinner," Hermione said, using her wand to direct the food to the table.

Draco couldn't help but smile as Vincent rambled on about the events of the day and Hermione served the food. Sure, he had a Dark Mark. But he also had a wonderful family.

"Remember, the Potters are coming over for dinner tonight," Hermione said as Draco was heading out the door for work.

He groaned. "How could I forget?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Draco. You two are grown men. There's absolutely no reason why you can't get along."

Draco looked skeptical. "Yeah, because he's going to do his best to be friends with me."

"I didn't say that! You both are acting childish." She sighed. "Just promise me you won't purposefully start fights?"

"All right, I promise," he said, more so she'd stop nagging him about it than because he actually intended to be friendly to Potter.

She smiled. "Good. Now make sure you're home early enough to change. I won't have you looking like a bum."

"Yeah, yeah." He kissed her and then left before she could harass him anymore.

When Draco returned to the house eight hours later, chaos greeted him. Vincent was running around while Hermione was trying to chase him; he was refusing to put on his dress clothes. Meanwhile, Hermione was also trying to cook and do last-minute cleaning.

"There you are! Come get your son changed into his nice clothes before I kill him, won't you?"

"Oh, so he's my kid when he's bad, isn't he?" he laughed.

"Dad, Mom's trying to make me wear ugly clothes!" Vincent said in a hurt tone of voice.

"Okay, let's see what we can do," Draco responded, going into the boy's room.

Vincent held up the offending shirt.

"What's wrong with that? It looks fine to me."

"It's short-sleeved. You always wear long sleeves."

Draco was stunned realizing how much his son looked up to and idolized him. He knew if Vincent knew the whole story, he wouldn't want to wear long sleeves.

In order to keep the peace, Draco looked through Vincent's closet. "Okay, how about you wear this?" He held up a black suit. When Vincent looked skeptical, he added, "I'm going to be wearing a suit too."

"Okay!" he said excitedly.

"I'd better get dressed myself before your mother has my head," Draco said quietly as he heard Hermione walking towards the room. He slipped out to change his own clothes.

He put on his traditional black suit and emerald tie before heading downstairs to help Hermione with final preparations.

"You look beautiful," he said, kissing her cheek. And she did, in a simple-but-elegant green dress.

She laughed. "We complement each other, don't we?"

"Yeah, I've brought you to the dark side," he joked.

The doorbell rang, announcing the Potters' arrival. "I'll get it," he said, ignoring her warning look.

He opened the door. "Hey!" he said, trying to make his voice enthusiastic because Hermione was standing right next to him, watching his every move.

Hermione hugged everyone eagerly while Vincent greeted James and Albus, who were seven and five, and Draco shook Harry's hand stiffly.

"How are you, James?" Draco asked, addressing little James Potter who was a year younger than Vincent.

"I'm good, Malfoy!" he replied.

"That's Mr. Malfoy to you, James," Ginny scolded, looking at Draco apologetically.

Draco grinned and looked at Harry. "You've taught him right, Potter."

The ice broken, they headed into the dining room to eat dinner, talking about old times.

In the middle of dinner, the kids started talking about Hogwarts and the parents listened while talking, smiling at each other.

"I'm going to be in Gryffindor like my parents!" James said.

"Me too!"

"No, Albus, you're too little to know," James retorted.

"Am not!"

"How about you, Vince?" James asked Vincent, not responding to his little brother.

"I'm going to be in Slytherin so I can be just like my dad!" Vincent responded proudly.

The adults fell silent, shocked. Hermione looked at Draco and smiled. His heart swelled with pride as he watched his son and James talking.

"Cool! We can still be friends though, right?" James asked.

"Course we can," Vincent responded firmly.

Then Draco's heart sunk as he realized Vincent would never want to be like his father if he knew what kind of man Draco really was. He decided he had to tell Vincent the truth as soon as possible. He himself had idolized his father for many years before realizing his true nature, and look where that had led. An estranged relationship. Vincent had never even met his grandparents, and Lucius had practically disowned Draco.

The adults finished eating and the Potters prepared to leave; Albus was falling asleep and James was trying to pretend he wasn't.

"Thank you so much for the lovely dinner, Hermione," Ginny said, hugging her.

"We have to do this again," Hermione responded.

Harry and Draco shook hands while Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes at each other.

"Potter."

"Malfoy."

They said their goodbyes and the Potters departed.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least you two didn't kill each other."

Draco laughed as he took off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. "I think we did a pretty good job, honestly."

Hermione looked at him, and he knew she was thinking about what had happened at dinner.

"I'm telling him. Right now."

She smiled. "I think that's best."

She disappeared into the kitchen to clean up from dinner, and Draco called Vincent.

"Yeah, Dad?" he said, coming downstairs.

"I need to talk to you."

The two sat on the couch together and Draco cleared his throat as Vincent looked up at him expectantly. He wondered how to start.

Deciding just to jump right in, he pulled up his shirt sleeve, revealing the ugly Dark Mark. "Have you seen this before, Vincent?"

Vincent gasped. "Ooh, I think so, a long time ago! What is it?" His fingers traced the mark. Draco flinched but didn't pull away.

"It's a Dark Mark." Vincent looked up at him curiously and Draco realized he'd have to start at the beginning. "You know Lord Voldemort?"

"The one Potter defeated in the big war?"

Draco nodded. "That one. Well, Grandpa Malfoy was one of his followers, called a Death Eater. All of Voldemort's followers were branded with this, the Dark Mark."

"So you were a...a Death Eater too?" he asked, wide-eyed.

Draco nodded. "Yeah. I did terrible things. I had to, or else Voldemort would've killed my family, and me too."

"Wow," Vincent said, speechless.

"I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to know what an awful person I really am," Draco said, holding back tears. He could hardly bear the thought that his own son would think of him poorly.

"But you had to," Vincent responded simply. "I think you're really, really brave."

Draco looked at his son, astonished. What had he done to deserve such unrequited love, both from Hermione and Vincent?

"Do you think they'll let me into Slytherin since I'm not a pureblood, Dad?" he asked seriously.

"You still want to be in Slytherin?" Draco said, shocked.

"Yeah! You're so brave and strong. I want to be just like that."

Draco hugged his son, crying. Vincent, wondering what he'd done, put up with being squashed for a few minutes before finally wriggling free.

"I love you," Draco said.

"I love you too, Dad."

And that was how Draco Malfoy learned that no matter what you've done, no matter what evils you've been marked with, the ones who matter will always love you unconditionally.


End file.
